Is it fun?

[Manuka]

...

I don't know, I can see how some might find it fun to just zip her around the arena and do things, but it doesn't really change that the optimal thing is to just plop her in the center and leave her since all her power is wrapped up in WD and Consolation now. You’ll move her when the party has to shift of course, but it’s nothing like it was before. In previous expansions her power was predominantly in her single target healing, meaning you would be rewarded for moving her around to exploit her range to focus her attention while manually Embracing. Now, there is no real reason to do so since she’s basically a Mobile Medica in the same vein as Star or Asylum but with an annoying delay.

As for whether it’s fun or not, personally not really. Granted I might be a bit jaded since I’ve been playing healers since the beta and Shb has been such a downgrade in play-feel that I don’t even play healers much outside of my group anymore. The only job I might give a semi-pass to is WHM, which don’t get me wrong the job is still a clipping mess with a kit that’s skin and bones. But the abilities WHM has, as few as there are, feel impactful enough to get some enjoyment out of it. Landing a 6-digit DHCrit Misery in a buff window? Godlike. Assize? Spin-to-win. Holy? Still stunning. Benediction? Make the tanks sweat. Temperance? Okay it’s nothing but a re-re-packaged Divine Seal, but it looks cute with my glamour so it gets a pass.

Meanwhile, Sch doesn’t really have much of a ‘wow’ factor to fall on and was always this slow-burn class that relied on multiple chores to do from AF management to fairy management to DoT management to mitigation prep. But the payoff for juggling all these systems effectively was an incredibly strong job, to the point it was obvious who was good at it and not. Fast-forward to now and it’s basically another filler mage with all the chores removed/redundant besides AF Management. What this left behind is a job that feels underwhelming, even if it is still strong. Also still triggers me you can’t AF out of combat, but that’s just me.

AST however is in a weird situation; it does have that wow factor in things like Star and its mobility makes it feel fluid and engaging over the competition. My guess is that besides the class fantasy (WHM as a concept is just popular) the mediocre card system really drags the rest of its kit down. While the old card system was problematic from a balance standpoint and was reduced to Balance fishing at a min-max level it was still more enjoyable to interact with, especially outside of a speedrunning/ postprog setting where you had the freedom to play with the other cards. Currently the cards feel tedious and annoying with the constant target swapping while the whole symbol slots feel tacked on at best. Getting your three seals doesn’t give you same rush as back-to-back Balances, but like you accomplished the bare minimum. While getting back-to-back Ewer’s when not needed sucked, at least old Lord/Lady were nice consolation prizes. Redrawing and getting Balance>Bole>Balance when you need a Moon with 20secs to Divi makes me want to toss the job in the dumpster, even though the cards are still op. Compare it to DNC where you pop your 30/120sec dances, play a little minigame and do tons of damage on top of your buffs, it just feels good. Basically with DNC I dance because I want to, on AST I draw because I have to.

Sorry for the blog, kinda went on a tangent lol